Yankees End Two-Game Skid but Lose Granderson to Injury

Curtis Granderson broke a bone in his pinkie after being hit by a pitch in the fifth, and was replaced for the bottom of the fifth.Credit
Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In a season characterized by a staggering run of injuries, the Yankees’ misfortune reached an almost absurd level Friday when Curtis Granderson sustained another broken bone in only his eighth game of the season.

Three months to the day after a pitch broke his right forearm in his first at-bat of spring training, Granderson was hit by a pitch on his left hand near his pinkie.

He will be out at least a month, and quite possibly six weeks. If he was crushed by bad luck, he refused to show it.

“It’s just crazy,” he said. “You can’t get too frustrated one way or the other about it and hang your head down on it. Keep your head up. It’s done. I can’t turn back the clock any way you want to. Have to move forward and be ready for when it heals back up and I have a chance to get back on the field.”

Despite the win, the clubhouse was quiet. There was no victory music played over the stereo and players dressed in near silence as they processed another loss amid a win, typical of the season.

“I’m happy that we won the game,” Manager Joe Girardi said, “but we lost a really good player and that’s never a good thing. But we’ve figured it out, and we’ll figure it out.”

With so many important position players already on the disabled list — Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis, Francisco Cervelli and Eduardo Nunez — it has become almost commonplace to see a Yankee felled by some injury or another in any given game. Now, even the returning players are getting hurt a second time.

“You’re never going to get used to it,” Robinson Cano said. “You never want to see a teammate go down and to lose a guy, especially a guy like Grandy.”

Photo

Rays right fielder Matt Joyce could not catch up to a two-run double by Lyle Overbay during the Yankees’ three-run second.Credit
Steve Nesius/Reuters

Granderson was struck in the fifth inning by the left-handed relief pitcher Cesar Ramos on a 90-mile-per-hour two-seam fastball. The ball broke the fifth metacarpal, just behind the knuckle on his pinkie. That is near the same spot where Rodriguez was struck last July 24 (again, the same day of the month) by Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. Rodriguez missed 36 games.

Then, three innings later, the Yankees were spared another serious injury by a matter of centimeters. David Phelps was hit by a line drive off the bat of Ben Zobrist. The ball was headed for his upper body but he put up his pitching arm in time to block it.

The ball hit the fleshy part, or “meat,” as Girardi described it, on the underside of his forearm. X-rays taken at Tropicana Field were negative.

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Phelps, who had thrown 98 pitches at the time, reacted angrily, throwing his glove to the ground as he paced behind the mound. He was immediately removed from the game and said he would make his next start. But he was not unaware of everything that has been going on around him.

“It’s frustrating because what’s been going on with our team,” he said. “With everyone getting hurt, I didn’t want to be the next guy. So I was pretty angry at that point.”

Granderson was struck by a J. A. Happ pitch on the right forearm on Feb. 24. Friday, he stayed in the game and moved around the bases before being removed.

“I thought I was going to be O.K.,” he said. “Very similar to last time. I stayed in all the way around to third. Once I got to third it started to hurt a little bit.”

Granderson said he was not feeling unlucky at all.

“I bounced back from this one,” he said, holding up his right arm. “I’ll bounce back from this. The hand’s still on, it didn’t fall off. You can take positives from everything. It’s a better break than the previous one, so that’s a good thing and I should be back sooner than the last one. And the team is playing well.”

Somehow, with so many injuries to key players, and multiple injuries on both arms for Granderson, the Yankees are still in first place in the American League East.

INSIDE PITCH

Mark Teixeira, who is recovering from a torn tendon sheath in his right wrist, said he would start his minor league rehabilitation assignment with Class AA Trenton on Wednesday and play two games there. He said that unless there was a setback, he could join the Yankees on Friday at Yankee Stadium for the three-game series with the Boston Red Sox. “The last year and a half with injuries, it’s been tough,” he said. “I want to get back to what I know I can be.” ... Andy Pettitte (strained left trapezius muscle) said he would throw a bullpen session Saturday. If all goes well, he will throw a simulated game and then could be ready to pitch five days after that.

A version of this article appears in print on May 25, 2013, on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Typical Day for Yankees: Victory and an Injury. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe